David Ely

Sally Draper's 45s

When Don Draper asks his secretary to buy his daughter some Beatles 45s, here’s what she likely picked up for Christmas 1964:

“I Feel Fine”/”She’s a Woman” came out November 27 of that year.

“A Hard Day’s Night”/”Things We Said Today”, July 10, 1964.

“Can’t Buy Me Love”/”You Can’t Do That”, March 20, 1964.

All are semi-early Beatles releases. The band was still in its early mod period, sporting what the early 60s would think of as long hair but would seem very short come St. Pepper’s full-on hippie look. They wouldn’t start experimenting with different sounds until “Rain” and Revolver in 1966.

The band was pumping out three records a year, and early on their single releases were not collected on the subsequent LPs, so there was a lot to keep up with for the early Beatles fan. Capitol Records, which distributed the band in the US, compiled the albums differently than the UK releases. With Help! in 1965 the releases started to sync up, but in 1964, if Sally had any LPs, she would have had titles like Meet the Beatles!, The Beatles’ Second Album, and Something New. A Hard Day’s Night came out with the film’s release in the late summer but had a slightly different track listing than the UK. Beatles ’65 was the most recent LP Sally could have gotten for Christmas that year, having hit the shelves on December 15.